The Benefits of Early Childhood Education

1. The Benefits of Early Childhood Education

2. Who We Are • Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children • Advocacy organization • Independent, non-profit • Prevention-focused, research-based • Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children is a strong, effective and trusted voice for improving the health, education and well-being of the Commonwealth’s children.

3. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • National Academies of Sciences • “Neurons to Neighborhoods” • Early experiences affect the development of the brain and lay the foundation for intelligence, emotional health, and social development. • 90% of brain growth occurs before age 5 • Little public financing in the early years

4. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Key research findings: • Neurons to Neighborhoods • Importance of early life experiences and interactive influences of genetics and life experiences – • not nature vs. nurture but nature and nurture • Early relationships either support development or foster dysfunction • Basic capacities (cognitive and linguistic), emotional foundation and social skills are all well develop before children reach school • The possibility to increase the odds for positive development through planned interventions is substantial

5. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Bridging research to practice: • Neurons to Neighborhoods • More parents working more hours – juggling of work and family at all income levels • High levels of economic hardship for many families • Continued ethnic and racial disparities • Growing number of children spending more hours in child care settings, often of poor or mediocre quality • Greater awareness of stressors on the lives of young children

6. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Participation in high-quality early care and education improves children’s health and promotes their development and learning. (Source: American Academy of Pediatrics) • Regardless of family income, high-quality programs have positive impact on children’s cognitive and language development.

7. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Children attending pre-school

8. Landmark Study: Perry Preschool • The study found that adults at age 40 who participated in the preschool program had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes, and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not have preschool.

9. Return on Investment • Overall, the Perry Preschool study documented a return to society of more than a $17 for every tax dollar invested in the early care and education program.

10. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Kids who start behind, stay behind • Nearly 90% of children who are poor readers in first grade will still be poor readers by fourth grade • One-third of children entering kindergarten cannot recognize the letters of the alphabet and more than half do not know basic math concepts.(Source: Pew Center on the States and National Conference of State Legislatures)

11. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Conditions are worse for our low-income children: • During their preschool years, low-income spend 25 hours reading vs. 1,000 – 1,700 hours spent reading by middle class peers • Start school with half the vocabulary of middle class peers – gap widens • Learn best in heterogeneous groups

12. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Research comes from surprising sources: • Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis “Investments made by families and society in children early in life yield both public and private long-term returns, including higher lifetime earnings for children, higher tax revenues and lower government transfer payments” • 12% public return • 16% public and private return • Calls for large scale, public investment

13. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Support comes from many: • Committee on Economic Development • National Business Roundtable • Fight Crime, Invest in Kids • Philanthropy

14. Early Childhood EducationA Strategic Opportunity • Children who attend high quality ECE learn social skills, self confidence and the ability to deal with others. • ECE creates successful students • ECE creates solid citizens • ECE creates better communities

15. Successful Students • Children who enter kindergarten from high quality ECE programs such as pre-K have better reading, language and social skills than those who didn’t go to preschool • ECE increases high school graduation rates • Chicago children who attended a pre-K program were 29% more likely to graduate from high school than their peers who did not have pre-K. (Source: Chicago Longitudinal Study) • ECE helps children do better on standardized tests - Children from quality pre-K get better test scores in later grades and are likelier to graduate from high school. (National Research Council, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, 2000.)

16. Successful Students • ECE reduces grade retention • Maryland fifth graders who attended pre-K were 44% less likely to have repeated a grade than their peers who did not attend pre-K. (Source: "State Efforts to Evaluate the Effects of Pre-Kindergarten,” Yale University Child Study Center) • ECE reduces the number of children placed in special education - Among Chicago children, those who attended pre-K were 41% less likely to require special education services than their peers who did not attend. (Source: Chicago Longitudinal Study)

17. Solid Citizens • As adults, children who attend high quality ECE programs are likelier to be married, with higher educational attainments and better-paying jobs.(Source: University of North Carolina, Early Learning, Later Success: The Abecedarian Study, 1999) • ECE reduces crime and delinquency • Chicago children who did not attend pre-K were 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18 than their peers who had been pre-K participants. (Source: Chicago Longitudinal Study)

18. Solid Citizens • ECE lowers rates of teen pregnancy • North Carolina children who attended pre-K were less likely to become teen parents than their peers who did not attend pre-K: 26% vs. 45%. • (Source: The North Carolina Abecedarian Project) • ECE leads to greater employment and higher wages as adults • Forty-year-old adults in Michigan who attended pre-K as children were more likely to be employed and had a 33% higher average income than their peers who did not have pre-K. (Source: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project)

19. Better Communities • Return on Investment • Pre-K results in savings by reducing the need for remedial and special education, welfare, and criminal justice services.(Sources: The Economics of Investing in Universal Preschool Education in California, RAND Corporation; The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project) • Pre-K is a vital part of workforce development - Pennsylvania’s employers support ECE investments because they equip young learners with the skills for school success and after graduation, workplace competence.

20. School Readiness in PAConditions of Children 0-5 • 1 in 3 children lives in a low-income family • 1 in 6 babies was born to a mother with less than a high school diploma • 900 children where victims of child abuse and neglect • 66.5% of income-eligible children ages 3 and 4 are enrolled in Head Start • Only 3.9% of young children have a quality child care space available to them

21. School Readiness in PAConditions of Children 0-5 • Over 66,000 children receive subsidized child care each day • 10,271 children were enrolled in public school pre-K in 2004-05 • 51% of PA kindergarteners are in full-day K compared to 65% nationally • 32% of our 3rd graders score below proficient in reading • 20% of our 3rd graders score below proficient in math

22. School Readiness Cumberland CountyConditions of Children 0-5 • 1 in 4 children lives in a low-income family • 1 in 8 babies was born to a mother with less than a high school diploma • 40% of income-eligible children ages 3 and 4 are enrolled in Head Start • Only 6% of young children have a quality child care space available to them • Over 500 children receive subsidized child care each day

23. School Readiness Cumberland CountyConditions of Children 0-5 • No children were enrolled in public school pre-K in 2004-05 • 51% of PA children have FDK but only 23.9% of children in Cumberland Co. • 26% of our 3rd graders scored below proficient in reading in Big Spring, 15% in Cumberland Valley, and 24% in Carlisle • 15% of 3rd graders scored below proficient in math in East Pennsboro, 13% in Shippensburg and 16% in Camp Hill

24. Better Communities • Stewardship: giving to children today who give back to society later • Increased tax revenue • Increased competitiveness and more skilled labor force/workforce development– if young people aren’t prepared for learning today, they’ll fail in school and as young adults, fail at work • We can and must do more….

25. To Contact Us Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children www.papartnerships.org 800-257-2030 Joan L. Benso President & CEO